FINAL PROTOCOL
by deetatarant
Summary: Ianto is in the Archives and pondering a document of interest.  FOR IANTO, TOSH AND OWEN.


**AN: An idea that sprang from watching the missing scenes from 'End Of Days' (Season One). Set somewhere between countrycide and suzie.**

**FINAL PROTOCOL**

Ianto had spent the day in the archive. It was quiet and surprisingly calming down in the damp depths of the Hub and Ianto was glad to find sanctuary there where he could work in peace. The relative quiet of the last few days had been a relief, with no Rift activity and few weevils to deal with Ianto was just glad of the time to ground himself in what he did best. Organising, reading, learning and remembering.

Ianto would never tire of these things, would never be bored with the opportunity to acquire more knowledge and he would relish any chance he had to be here in this repository of information.

Today he had opted for one of the rusting filing cabinets in the room he had set up for himself as an office. He was some way into digitising all the old paper records, but there was still a vast amount of them to get through. It was not that Ianto was slow, he was just interested and too tempted into reading as each curling, brown edged document gave away its secrets. In this way Ianto had learned about much of the history of the Cardiff branch, about his mysterious boss and more recently about the inner workings of the Hub itself.

Hours slid by and one document in particular had captured Ianto's attention. He had sat down without even realising it with the silver document folder in his hands. It was dated from the 1960's, a time when many alterations had been made within the Hub itself. Captain Harkness had been responsible for over-seeing some of the work and compiling the papers currently grasped in Ianto's hands.

"**THE FINAL PROTOCOL"**

**Revised edition in light of modifications to the Rift Manipulator, Torchwood Cardiff, by C.J Harkness. July 7****th**** 1963.**

Ianto read on, taking in the operational procedures laid out in Jack's own hand. Blue Print sheets were attached. Ianto was so engrossed that he missed lunch and wasn't apparently missed by his team mates until the coffee pot had run empty. He left the document at 2pm and wandered up to the main area of the Hub. He glanced up to see his colleagues in the boardroom and promptly made fresh brews and took them to the team. He was about to leave the boardroom when Jack called to him.

"Yarnto, sit, eat."

Jack had been watching him like a hawk ever since Lisa and then Brynn Blaidd. Ianto didn't hesitate and took the chair to Jack's left and Toshiko promptly pushed a tray of Chinese food in his direction. Ianto accepted it with a smile of thanks and proceeded to tuck a napkin in at his chin. It took him a moment to realise that his team mates were all watching him.

"Why do you do that?" Owen demanded, reaching for his mug.

Ianto merely raised an eyebrow as well as a forkful of rice, he was careful to avoid the meat.

"Do what?"

"That thing, with the bib."

Jack started to laugh and it was a warm, rich sound that brought smiles to Tosh and Gwen's faces.

Ianto put his fork down and pushed the food away, embarrassed by the attention. He'd left his coffee by the coffee machine. Tosh pushed the food back.

"Ignore him Ianto, he's bored."

"He's boring more like." Ianto responded.

"You haven't answered the question." Owen remarked, smacking his lips at the wonderful coffee.

Ianto faced him with a look that was entirely unreadable by anyone in the room.

"Enjoying your coffee, are you?"

Owen immediately put down his mug and looked at it with suspicion. Jack's laughing continued.

"Don't Owen, you could be on decaf if you're not careful. Yarnto, eat your food."

Both Owen and Ianto glared at Jack, but Ianto obeyed cautiously navigating his way around the chicken to eat the rice and mushrooms instead. He ate in silence as the rest of the team resumed the conversation they had been having earlier. Ianto tuned it out, too preoccupied with the document he had been reading earlier as he began to realise its significance. It took him a moment to register that he was being spoken to.

"So Yarnto, found anything interesting in the archive today?"

He blinked at Jack for a second, gathering himself. Yarnto? What the hell was that?

"Not really sir. I'm just scanning the paperwork and adding it all to the main database."

"Don't you get bored Tea Boy?"

Ianto shrugged and resumed his picky eating.

"It's very useful Owen, I often rely on that database." Tosh commented, smiling at Ianto as she took a sip from her coffee. Once again Ianto lowered his fork and pushed away his half eaten meal.

"There's over a hundred years worth, but a lot of it is water damaged, I dread to think what state some of the artefacts are in."

"Haven't you checked?" Jack asked and then realised in that moment he probably shouldn't have.

"You revoked my access, sir, if you recall."

Jack did.

An awkward silence followed until Gwen decided to break it.

"So, er who's for the pub after work then?"

"Count me in love." Owen answered immediately.

"I think we should all go." Jack added, looking pointedly at Ianto. Ianto went to pick up his coffee mug and remembered, once again that it wasn't there.

"I have work to do." He blurted it out and then dipped his chin. "This place needs cleaning up for a start." He added after a breath. In truth he wanted to spend time with the newly discovered document.

Jack sighed. "Ok, team, make sure you clean up your own mess for a change, Yarnto is not the domestic help around here."

Ianto flushed beetroot and balked in horror. "No sir its fine. It's my job, general support. I can ma…"

"Yarnto, consider it an order. You need some down time, the same as the rest of us."

Ianto looked up and met Jack's stern gaze. He opened his mouth, closed it and then opened it again. "I do have down time." He responded somewhat lamely.

"If he doesn't want to come boss…" Owen really didn't care one way or the other.

"We're all going. We never go out as a whole team and tonight we are going to…."

"Rift permitting." Tosh added for good measure.

"Tosh!" Gwen, Owen and Jack all chided her at same time.

"And for that you are buying the first round." Owen added indignantly.

Ianto resorted to rolling his eyes and standing up. "Well then, I'd best get back to it. I'll leave you to clear this up." He smartly strode from the room and headed off to get some much needed coffee.

The mug he had left on the bench earlier, along with his sandwich (which was curling at the edges) were still sitting there. Ianto ignored them and made himself a fresh 'special brew'. He took his steaming mug of heaven back down to his office.

Ianto had no idea that the Rift Manipulator was such a complex and narrow line of defence against the potential collapse of Time itself. He understood many things about the Rift and Jack had opened up to him recently about the residents on Flat Holm Island. Ianto had questioned him then about how the manipulator could be used to send people and things back to their own time and place. Now he figured out just how little he understood about the Rift, timespace and the manipulator that controlled it. Their protection was fragile at best and he began to fully appreciate, just how serious Jack was about not messing with the Rift. Jack had been training himself and Tosh on some of the maintenance of the manipulator over recent weeks, but they were never allowed to touch it unsupervised. It was almost as if Jack were afraid of it and now Ianto could see why he might be. For some reason H.G Wells' 'Time Machine' sprang to mind and Ianto found himself lost to his imaginings.

Ianto's mental wanderings were sharply interrupted by a coughing from the open brick doorway. He turned in his seat and discovered Jack standing in the entrance, hands shoved into the depths of his pockets.

"Hey, how's it going?" It was a soft drawl, filled with undisguised affection and Ianto wondered how Jack could make almost anything he said sound seductive.

Ianto smiled in the dim light. "Slowly, I get too interested. I found this folder and started to read." He gestured to the spread of papers on his desk. Jack stepped forwards into the yellowing light from the old overhead bulb.

"What is it?" He came to lean against the filing cabinet. He was still a little cautious around Ianto, the man had been incredibly jumpy since Brynn Blaidd.

"It's something you compiled in the 1960s…"

Jack stiffened.

Ianto paused with a sigh. "I know sir, I know you are very much older than you look, your records go back over a century. I won't enquire, it is not my business." He said with firm reassurance.

Jack simply nodded. "So the file?" He knew he'd have to talk to Ianto about the things he'd discovered about himself, but one thing was certain, Ianto knew how to keep secrets better than he did. He wanted the slightly awkward moment gone.

Ianto recognised the moment for what it was, Jack wanted his secret kept and he felt an underlying threat in Jack's posture, whether Jack intended him to or not. He offered up a faint smile.

"Your plans and operational specs for the manipulator." He held up a sheet of blue print. "It's frightening stuff, sir. I never thought we were so vulnerable."

Jack seemed to relax a little as he moved into Ianto's personal space to look over his shoulder. Ianto tensed in his seat, unhappy about the proximity of his boss, he considered the harassment word, but there was something undefinable about this moment that he knew he shouldn't ruin it with a stupid comment.

"Sir?"

Jack straightened up and folded his arms across his chest. "These documents should be in the secure archive. Where did you find them?"

Ianto pointed to an innocent and rather battered grey metal filing cabinet. "In there, under building maintenance logs for 1963."

Jack was tutting as he shook his head. "Bloody Sean Carter, he was a lousy archivist, little weasel of a man, who had a tick. Kept twitching his eyebrow."

Ianto raised one of his and Jack looked at him in that moment and their gazes locked. "Just like that. Jeez Yarnto, that's scary."

They smiled.

"It's Ianto sir, not yarnto. Yarnto makes me sound like a ball of string."

Jack's eyes went like saucers. "Lots of things you can do with string Yarnto." The last word slid off his tongue in a long sultry drawl.

Ianto dipped his head and looked away. "Uhumm, so do you want these back in the secure archive, sir?"

Jack nodded. "Yep. I should give you the new codes too, you can only half your job otherwise."

Ianto was frowning, his eyes steadfastly downcast. "You trust me sir?"

"I always trusted you. Look Yarnto…." He gently reached and grasped Ianto's chin, forcing him to look up. "I know why you did what you did. It's in the past, I forgave you the day after it happened. It was never about that, not in that sense. I guess it was more the fact that you felt you could not trust me. It made me realise a few home truths and I was angry. I trust you, you have a good heart with honourable intent."

Ianto nodded, his chin still in Jack's grip.

"Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome." Jack let him go and turned his attention to the papers. "Feel free to study these, it'll be useful to you. But for now let's organise a secure container and lock them up. We have a pub outing to attend."

Ianto began to carefully gather up the sheets and refolding the diagrams. "I'd just as soon go home sir."

"I know you would, and you can afterwards. Come on, it'll do you good to let your hair down. Anyway, I'll lose £20 if you bail out on me."

Ianto sighed, not liking the coercion.

"Yarnto?" The distinct concern in Jack's voice made Ianto stop what he was doing and look up. Jack was taken aback by the realisation that he was looking into the too old eyes of a 24 year old boy. "You really don't want to go, do you?" He asked gently.

"I've forgotten how to sir. The last time I went out for drinks with my work colleagues was the night before the Cybermen came. It was Susan's birthday…. She worked in Lisa's office, she was expecting her first baby….. I found her at the bottom of a stairwell with her brain removed. She was 7 months pregnant Jack. I feel guilt, just even thinking about going to the pub." Ianto somehow managed to keep his voice steady as he turned his gaze to his hands, which were shaking.

"Can I ask you something, sir?"

Jack squeezed his shoulder. "Of, course."

"If the Cybermen came back and the world went to hell, could we use the Rift manipulator against them, like send them off into the far future or something?"

Jack sighed and pulled over an upturned tea chest to perch on. He leant forward, elbows on his knees.

"No. We cannot control the Rift Yarnto. All the manipulator does is act like a restraint, limiting the stuff comes through or…"

"Or gets taken away."

"Yeah, that as well. The manipulator is like the lock you put on your door to keep the bad wolf out. All we can do, at best, is guard it and act as the first line of defence. Thankfully the Cardiff Rift is relatively small and seemingly stable. Open the door and there is no way to stop the influx of displaced time. A poor defence. And anyway I wouldn't wish the Cybermen on my worst enemy, let alone some random strangers in the future I might never meet."

Ianto nodded staring at the damp brick work. "But you will meet them, won't you?"

Jack nodded. "Maybe, one day."

"Who are you Jack?" Ianto knew the risk he was taking by asking but he did it anyway.

"That is a question for another time. For now, I am Jack, leader of Torchwood three, your boss, your friend and…"

"I wish I had died back there, if only to save someone else better than me."

It was said so quietly that Jack thought he had misheard. It hurt to hear it and Jack really didn't want to go there right now.

"Yarnto, you did your best, it's all any of us could hope for and you are a much better person than you think you are. Come on, let's go and get and drunk."

Ianto passed the now sealed folder to Jack.

"Yarnto, regret and guilt are both parts of a normal life, part of what makes you human, but keep them a small part."

"I'll try to remember that sir."


End file.
